DOS stressed the immediacy of the situation, so Coast Guard Commandant Paul Yost agreed to the mission and Air Station Clearwater provided a C-130 and aircrew. DOS requested Coast Guard assistance to provide an air bridge between Lima and the airfield in Santa Lucia for two months using its HC-130 “Hercules” aircraft. Building the airfield, more than any other factor, would allow counterdrug aircraft to be used more effectively.Ĭonstruction of the airfield began in 1998 with fixed-wing aircraft flying personnel, equipment, and supplies from Lima, Peru, to the base several times each week. The counterdrug operation became part of a larger Department of State (DOS) operation labelled “Snow Cap.” DOS contracted with the private contractor National Air Transport Incorporated (NATI) to build and provide security for the base. Building, equipping, and manning a strategic airfield in the Huallaga Valley became the DEA’s responsibility. The Peruvian government became embroiled in a civil war and drug interdiction was no longer the top priority. They provided protection to the farmers, but collected a tax for doing so. In 1986, Shining Path guerillas took control of the Huallaga Valley’s coca fields. The Shining Path began as a means to stop ongoing social injustices and abuses the Indigenous people of Peru faced. A Maoist guerilla movement, the Sendero Luminoso, also known as “The Shining Path,” took root in the jungles.
This initial success did not last.Īt that time, the primary coca-growing and drug-trafficking activities in Peru were in the Upper Huallaga Valley. In 18 months, these troops destroyed 36 laboratories and 150 airstrips, and seized 70 trafficking planes and 30 tons of coca paste. Peru dispatched its army to remote areas to locate and destroy the cocaine laboratories. In November 1985, under the Peruvian government, drug interdiction proved successful. The Reagan Administration and Peru’s government began collaborating on anti-drug programs within Peru. government began implementing policies to reduce the amount of cocaine flowing into the country. During the mid-1980s and 1990s, Peru grew 60% of the world’s coca crop, most of it being processed into a cocaine base and flown to Colombia to make cocaine for shipment to the United States and Europe.
At the time, the DEA was focusing on heroin. In 1980, cocaine was not yet on the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) radar screen.
0 kommentar(er)
